Content sharing services serve content, such as pictures, audio, video, text, or combinations thereof, to visitors who access the content sharing service. The content may be sourced from a publisher, automatically generated, or uploaded by one of the visitors to the content sharing service. The content may be represented as digitally encoded information. The content sharing service may store the content, or link to other services and retrieve the content prior to serving the content to the visitors.
The content sharing service may augment the serving of the content with shared content. The shared content may be served before, during or after the presentation of the content. The shared content may be associated with meta information, and when the shared content is clicked-through by a visitor, the visitor may be redirected to additional content associated with the shared content. The shared content may provide information associated with a product or service related to the content.
The content sharing service may monetize the shared content service. Thus, a third-party may purchase a right to distribute content along with the shared content. Accordingly, as more visitors access content through the content sharing service, the content sharing service may serve more shared content, thereby increasing revenue associated with the viewing of shared content.
Further, the content sharing service may monetize the shared content serving according to the number of visitors who view the shared content. Thus, as more visitors access the shared content, the content sharing service may earn more revenue.
The content sharing service may select content to be presented to a visitor based on the visitor's perceived interest, previous accesses, and content likely to incentivize the visitor to remain connected to the content sharing service. While the visitor is being served content, or after the visitor has finished accessing a specific content item, the content sharing service may present a list of recommended content for the visitor to access. Thus, by encouraging the visitor to remain on the content sharing service, the content sharing service may serve more shared content or have larger audiences for a specific shared content item.
The visitor may employ various techniques to access the content. For example, the visitor may access the content sharing service through a browser or mobile application installed on a device. The visitor may employ various devices to access the content sharing service. For example, the visitor may employ a personal computer workstation to access the content sharing service during the daytime hours. In the evening hours, the visitor may employ a mobile device to access the content sharing service.